


Happy Medium

by Lauryn426



Category: The Boys (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 13:08:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28564044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lauryn426/pseuds/Lauryn426
Summary: Hughie can see the future, and it's great when he sees the important things. It's not so great when he can't save his girlfriend from being evaporated because he didn't see it coming.
Relationships: Billy Butcher/Hughie Campbell, Hughie Campbell/Robin Ward, Monique/Mother's Milk (The Boys), The Female | Kimiko Miyashiro/The Frenchman
Comments: 3
Kudos: 37





	Happy Medium

Hughie didn’t hate what he could do - it came in damn useful, sometimes. Like the time he’d seen that if he ate the special of the day at the restaurant two blocks down from work he’d spend the whole weekend puking his guts up. That was a nice thing to have been able to see and not have to live. Seeing the future was great, sometimes; it made him feel prepared for whatever was coming his way, and he knew exactly what that was.

It was when he didn’t see something coming that it threw him off his groove. When he hadn’t seen that his dad was going to buy him a puppy for his birthday. He’d been delighted, at first. Until he’d broken out in hives because it turned out he was allergic to pet dander. That was a shock to him, and his dad. He hadn’t seen that he’d bump into Robin on the way to class, and he was weirdly grateful for it. Robin said that she’d loved how awkwardly stunned he was when they first met. Knowing exactly what was going to happen should have made meeting people and making friends easy. Being able to see that wow okay that joke came out wrong, or that was the completely right thing to say should’ve made everything flow smoothly. Probably could have, if he hadn’t been Hughie.

But he was. 

He’d been able to see that he and Robin would meet up on his lunch break and that they’d have another conversation about him standing up for himself. He’d even seen that they’d meet A-Train. Hughie hadn’t seen Robin die. That was a lie, actually. He’d seen it just a second before it happened, and then watched it happen in front of him. Just a second too slow to pull her closer. In his dreams, he saw it over and over. He saw himself pull her into an easy hug and hold her tight. He saw her being pulverised in slow motion. He saw A-Train stop and confront Hughie about her being in the way. He saw that Robin and him were reversed and that he’d been decimated instead.

It didn’t matter what he saw in his dreams. It mattered what he saw in real life, right in front of him. It mattered that he’d seen the love of his life explode, too fast for his mind to really register. It mattered that he’d been left holding her hands in his, and that he’d felt that way that her body had been steamrolled. He’d been shifted by the force of it, needing to take a step to steady himself before he realised what had happened. No amount of steps felt like they could be enough to steady himself then.

That was why he wasn’t surprised when the lawyer had come from Vought with the settlement, like money could make up for a life. Robin had so many opportunities that she’d never be able to take, and so many memories that she could never make. Like money could make the loss go away, and everything be fine again. He saw himself reaching over the table and hitting the lawyer. Knew he’d never actually do it, but damn if it wasn’t satisfying to see it and almost feel the force in his knuckles.

Hughie saw the man that came to speak to him about revenge, and what would happen if he said yes. He saw what would happen if he said no, too. 

If he said no, Butcher would still gather up his group, but they would be too volatile to really do anything. Butcher was a planner, but he’d be too busy trying to sort the Frenchie and M.M out and stop their incessant bickering to really consider everything. They’d make some stupid mistakes, and escape a few situations by the skin of their teeth, laughing about how that was a close one, and that Butcher was losing his touch. They wouldn’t survive over a year together, and in that year Butcher would get grouchier and grouchier at not making any progress, become reckless in his desperation to finally get Homelander. Frenchie would lose the girl who would be his soulmate simply by not meeting her at the right time, and M.M had the most tragic future. His wife would leave him after yet another screaming match about Butcher and how she hated what he did and that he broke his promise. She’d walk out of their home with their daughter with plans to drive to her parents’ house. Monique would turn back, one last time to tell him not to bother contacting her because she’d send the divorce papers in the mail. Monique and Janine would never make it to their destination because they’d be hit by a drunk driver, and so M.M would have his world destroyed twice in one day.

But if he said yes, the possibilities were endless. They were still some bad endings for the group, but less of them, and less severe. Instead of Frenchie losing his leg in his last mission, he’d lose the tip of his pinky finger. M.M’s family would still be a little broken, but the chasm that opened between him and his wife was fixable. Hughie didn’t know what to think of what he saw of Billy. Well, to be more accurate, what he saw of himself and Billy.

It wasn’t because he was having a sexuality freak out - he’d experimented in college enough to know what he liked, and to know that there was no real rhyme or reason to it. His type was eclectic, and he liked what he liked. He was unsure of it because he saw it all so differently: he saw the build-up to finally getting together and the heartbreak when something went wrong, he saw the soft moments between them and the worst fights they’d ever have. 

Relationships aren’t always the good things because nothing in life is perfect and good. Hughie loved Robin but he could still remember the arguments they’d have when she thought he wasn’t trying hard enough and the way something always felt a little off sometimes. His relationship with Billy always seemed to be one extreme, or the other. He wondered if they’d ever reach a happy medium between them.

Hughie decided that there was only one way to find out, so he followed Butcher when he came into the shop, and decided that he was in for the ride, come what may.


End file.
